The role of Matthew Nimetz in the longstanding conflict between Greece and its northern neighbor may purportedly be that of an impartial mediator, but his past and present endeavors and many conflicts of interest reveal otherwise.

Nimetz performed his legal clerkship under a Supreme Court justice who co-founded an organization promoting eugenics and which maintained Nazi ties.

His diplomatic career began during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, under whose watch came the U.S.-supported coup which brought a military dictatorship to Greece in 1967.

Nimetz’ legal career has included partnerships at firms which have represented the likes of Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase.

Nimetz was in charge of Greek-Turkish and East Mediterranean affairs in the U.S. State Department between 1977-1981. During this time, the U.S. arms embargo towards Turkey was lifted.

Nimetz proposed the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” as a temporary name for Greece’s northern neighbor in 1995, then used this name against Greece more recently, stating that Greece already accepted a country name which included the term “Macedonia.”

Nimetz is the former COO of General Atlantic LLC, which was a shareholder in Denmark’s Saxo Bank, which operated a banking subsidiary in Greece at the same time that Nimetz was the UN’s “special mediator” between Greece and “FYROM.”

Nimetz is a trustee of the Central European University (CEU), based in Budapest and founded by George Soros.

Nimetz is the founding chair and current board member of the Centre for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeastern Europe (CDRSEE), based in Thessaloniki, which operates the “Joint History Project.” This project, among other things, publishes history textbooks which are promoted to governments all across the Balkans. These textbooks recognize Greece’s northern neighbor as “Macedonia” and republish nationalist poems of that country.

As part of the Tsipras-Zaev deal brokered by Nimetz, the two countries are obliged to change the history textbooks used in their schools to remove “chauvinistic” references to Macedonia.

The CDRSEE is founded by George Soros’ CEU and Open Society foundations, the U.S. State Department, the European Union, and the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In other words, the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs has provided funding to an organization founded by the purportedly “neutral” mediator between Greece and “FYROM” on the Macedonia name dispute.

The mayor of Thessaloniki Yiannis Boutaris is another CDRSEE donor.

The CEO of the FP Group, which publishes Foreign Policy magazine and which recently proposed that Tsipras receive a Nobel Prize over the “North Macedonia” deal, is a board member of the NGO “IREX,” which is a donor to the Nimetz-founded CDRSEE.

Nimetz is a member of the board of advisers of the NCAFP, whose vice chairman Nancy E. Soderberg is the former vice-president of the International Crisis Group (ICG). The ICG proposed, in 2011, the name “Republic of North Macedonia” for Greece’s northern neighbor. The ICG includes amongst its board members George Soros and his son, Alexander Soros.

Tsipras admitted in a televised interview that the “North Macedonia” deal was sent to Nimetz for “corrections.” Which “corrections” were made, and why?

Has Nimetz truly been impartial in his role as mediator on the Macedonia naming dispute?

Introduction

We are supposed to believe that the entire world is rejoicing at the news that Greece’s prime minister Alexis Tsipras and his counterpart in “FYROM” (the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”) have come to an agreement where Greece’s norther neighbor will hereby be recognized as “North Macedonia.” Actors such as the EU, NATO, and the U.S. State Department have rejoiced, while Foreign Policy has ludicrously rushed to propose that Tsipras be awarded with a Nobel Prize.

Indeed, we are supposed to believe that this agreement is a great net positive for both countries and for all of humanity, putting an end to a dispute which has been ongoing ever since the unfortunate breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the “independence” of the so-called “Macedonia” in 1991.

Ever since 1994, the diplomat who has been tasked with brokering a solution for the dispute between the two countries is a man by the name of Matthew Nimetz. Initially appointed by the Clinton administration as a special envoy in 1994, Nimetz has served as the UN’s mediator on the Macedonia dispute ever since 1999.

When a diplomat is appointed to a position as a “mediator” in a conflict or dispute between two countries, one is led to believe that said diplomat is neutral and impartial, not siding with either party. Is this the case with Matthew Nimetz in the case of the Macedonia dispute, however? Who exactly is Matthew Nimetz, and what is his background? The following paragraphs will be quite revelatory.

Early beginnings in “diplomacy”

According to Nimetz’s biography, he was born in Brooklyn to a Jewish family in 1939, and graduated from Williams College, a small, private liberal arts college located in Massachusetts, in 1960. Such small liberal arts schools are favorites of the U.S. State Department for the purposes of recruiting future diplomats, in the mold of well-read and purportedly “idealistic” youth who want to “change the world” (but seemingly always within the confines of the existing order).

Nimetz immediately went on to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar — the scholarship program established by the racist colonialist Cecil Rhodes — prior to commencing his legal studies at Harvard, where he became editor of the Harvard Law Review, a position which was later also held by Barack Obama.

Upon Nimetz’s graduation from Harvard, he began a two-year legal clerkship for U.S. Supreme Court justice John Marshall Harlan II, son of John Maynard Harlan, who himself was a Supreme Court justice for more than three decades and who is considered one of the most influential justices in the court’s history. Harlan II and Nimetz both attended the same college at Oxford (Balliol College), whose alums also include Adam Smith and the (until recently) foreign minister of the UK, Boris Johnson.

The first of many detours begins here, as it is worth examining who Harlan II was. In 1937, Harlan II was one of the founding members of the notorious Pioneer Fund, infamous for its promotion of eugenics — a practice favored by the Nazi regime in Germany, and by many in North America at the time. At least two other founding members of the Pioneer Fund — Wickliffe Preston Draper and Harry Laughlin — seem to have maintained at least some ties with the Nazi regime. Draper met with leading proponents of eugenics during a visit to Nazi Germany in 1935 and expressed enthusiastic support over the concept, while Laughlin was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Heidelberg less than a year after the enactment of the Nuremburg Race Laws. Indeed, Laughlin is quoted as stating that the United States and the Third Reich shared “a common understanding of … the practical application” of eugenic principles to “racial endowments and … racial health.”

One additional founding member of the Pioneer Fund, Frederick Osborn, wrote in 1937 that the Nazi Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring was “the most exciting experiment that had ever been tried.” Still another founding member of the Pioneer Fund, Malcolm Donald, was also a former editor of the Harvard Law Review. See a pattern? One of course might wonder why Nimetz, who is Jewish, was so comfortable working with a justice who was a founding member of an organization that was so close to the Nazi regime.

Immediately following his clerkship in 1967, Nimetz was able to secure a position in the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, initially as a member of his domestic policy staff. Clearly Nimetz didn’t have to worry too much about sending out copies of his resume and waiting for the phone to ring. What happened in 1967 though? This was the year that the U.S. and Western-backed military junta overthrew the democratic government of Greece.

To get a sense of the position of Lyndon B. Johnson towards political developments in Greece at the time, one needs to go no further than to an infamous outburst by Johnson towards then-Greek ambassador in 1965, after the latter rejected Johnson’s plan to divide Cyprus into Greek and Turkish parts, as a solution to the ongoing disputes between the two countries:

Fuck your Parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If those two fleas continue itching the elephant, they may just get whacked… We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. Ambassador. If your prime minister gives me talk about democracy, parliaments, and constitutions, he, his parliament, and his constitution may not last very long… Don’t forget to tell old papa-what’s his name what I told you [referring to Greek Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou].

Fuck your Parliament and fuck your constitution. That’s the language used by the so-called “leader of the free world” and “progressive hero” Lyndon B. Johnson, towards Greece with regards to another issue of national importance. Then the proposal was for partition of Greek territory, today with the Macedonia issue, there is a partitioning of Greek history and cultural identity and the invention of a new ethnicity, language, and nationality out of thin air, one that is now apparently “racist” and “chauvinistic” to deny.

Of course, two years following Johnson’s outburst, the Greek junta came to power, a military regime whose attempted overthrow of the Cypriot government in 1973 opened the door to the Turkish invasion and occupation of almost 40 percent of the island which continues to this day. This was precisely the partitioning that Johnson screamed about in his rant.

As another quick aside here, it bears noting that fake savior Yanis Varoufakis, who rammed through austerity as Greece’s finance minister in the first half of 2015 while maintaining a “radical” and “anti-austerity” facade in the public eye, was invited for two years, spent the two years before his political appointment as a “visiting professor” at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin (which happens to also be my doctoral alma mater). Varoufakis was the second-highest paid visiting professor in the University of Texas system at the time, with a salary of $100,000 (more than many full-time faculty members) according to data which was publicly available at the time in the Texas Tribune. Varoufakis was brought to Texas by economist James Galbraith, also a part of the LBJ School. Keep that name in mind for later. Of course, Varoufakis also supports a compromise on the Macedonia name issue, going as far as to describe it as a “patriotic obligation” for Greece. What a surprise.

Strategic posts

Returning again to Nimetz, he remained part of the Johnson administration for two years, prior to moving on to the private sector, specifically to the major law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. With eleven offices and revenues of over one billion dollars annually at present, this firm has maintained longstanding relations with the likes of J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America (banks which “man of the people” Barack Obama informed us were “too big to fail”), the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and more recently Microsoft, Google, and Facebook — together champions of so-called “net neutrality” whilst simultaneously engaging in systematic censorship online.

Once again Nimetz likely did not need to send out too many resumes or go to too many job interviews to land this position — nor did he seem to have much trouble becoming a partner at this prestigious firm (within just four years).

Even in the private sector, Nimetz continued his involvement in politics. For instance, in 1974 and 1975, Nimetz worked on the electoral campaign of Hugh Carey, who was soon to become governor of New York State and who in 1981 married the wealthy Greek-American real estate mogul Evangeline Gouletas. Carey later became a special adviser to president Bill Clinton.

Between 1975 and 1977, Nimetz was a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. For those who are not familiar, what exactly is the Port Authority? It is the owner of the three international airports of the New York City area (JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty), it operates the ports of the New York City area, and it was the owner of the World Trade Center and current owner of One World Trade Center. The Twin Towers had just been completed in 1975 and were in the process of being developed and populated. Airports and harbors imply trade, and trade is intricately linked to geopolitics.

Nimetz’ relationship with the Port Authority was indeed rekindled more recently, when in 2007 then-governor of New York Eliot Spitzer nominated Nimetz to again serve as a commissioner. Following the public disgracing of Spitzer (who once described himself as a “fucking steamroller“) and his subsequent resignation, Nimetz’ candidacy for the post did not progress.

Return to diplomacy, end of the U.S. arms embargo against Turkey under Nimetz’s watch

In 1977, Nimetz was appointed by the administration of U.S. president Jimmy Carter as Counselor of the United States Department of State, under then-Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. Who was Cyrus Vance? He had also been a member of the Johnson administration along with Nimetz, is a member of the Trilateral Commission, and later served on the board of directors of IBM, Pan American World Airways, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, U.S. Steel, and The New York Times, and as a trustee of the Yale Corporation, as Chairman of the Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, and Vice Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. Vance had also practiced law at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, just as Nimetz had. Vance’s son is today a district attorney in Manhattan. As we will also see, Vance played his own significant role in Greek affairs in the coming decades.

What were Nimetz’s responsibilities at the State Department between 1977 and 1981? His purview included the Cyprus issue and Greek-Turkish relations. Why is this significant? In 1978, under Nimetz’s watch as the Carter administration’s official in charge of Greek-Turkish and Eastern Mediterranean affairs, the U.S. arms embargo against Turkey was lifted. This embargo was implemented in 1975 following Turkey’s illegal invasion and occupation of almost 40 percent of Cyprus.

It is also interesting to take a look at other issues under the purview of Nimetz during his time at the State Department, which included U.S.-Mexico border affairs (hold on to this thought, as well as to Nimetz’ previous role in the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey), and the Micronesian status negotiations. How did these negotiations turn out? According to Hellenic Insider contributor Déborah Berman-Santana:

The US dragged out the Micronesia negotiations for over 20 years, long enough to break down plans for an independent Federation with sovereignty over the surrounding ocean (a no no for the US), divide the Micronesians into fake “associated republics” with no sovereignty but UN votes, payoffs of compliant locals and assassinations of leaders, torpedoing reparations for nuclear testing, etc.

One therefore may wonder whether Nimetz’s role has been not to solve disputes but to perpetuate them, at least until one of the parties is sufficiently weakened.

Following his tenure in the Carter administration, Nimetz returned to the private sector for the next 19 years, joining another high-profile New York law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, almost immediately becoming partner. To provide a sense of where this firm is coming from, it is listed as the third-biggest donor to U.S. Senator and current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (another Harvard Law alum) between 1989-2018. That “top ten” list of donors also includes Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and Lazard — brought to Greece by the aforementioned Varoufakis and by the previous two governments to advise the country on implementing the austerity agreements with the “troika.” Another Schumer donor? George Soros.

Nimetz again continued his involvement in politics and particularly in matters of foreign affairs while in the private sector, however his return to politics in earnest came in 1994, when president Bill Clinton appointed Nimetz as his special negotiator for the Macedonian issue.

Now, what was happening during this period? The breakup of Yugoslavia was fully underway by this point, war was being waged in much of the region, and “Macedonia” had itself declared independence in 1991. And beginning that year, one of the individuals who was prominently involved in negotiations between the different sides in the Yugoslav conflict was none other than Cyrus Vance himself.

Getting involved with “Macedonia”

It was Nimetz who, in September 1995, oversaw the temporary accord between Greece and its northern neighbor whereby the temporary name “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” was assigned. Nimetz has since used this temporary accord against Greece. In an interview broadcast earlier this year by Greece’s ANT1 TV, Nimetz stated:

“One has to be realistic. Right now the name of the country in the United Nations is Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. So the name Macedonia is in the name now in the United Nations and recognized by Greece with that name. Over 100 countries recognize the name as Republic as Macedonia, so it has Macedonia in the name, for most countries.”

The Yugoslav conflict finally came to a close in December 1995, just a few months after the interim accord between Greece and “FYROM,” with the Dayton Accords, whose chief architect was the State Department’s Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Richard Holbrooke. Upon Holbrooke’s death in 2010, a “heartfelt” obituary was published in The Guardian by economist Peter Galbraith. Who is Peter Galbraith? He is a former State Department diplomat who, among other things, “discovered” that Saddam Hussein was “gassing” the Kurds (and who has supported the breakup of Iraq into three states, while also playing a role in the creation of Iraq’s new constitution in 2003, following the Bush administration’s invasion of the country).

Peter Galbraith was also the former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia during the crucial 1993-1998 period. He is the son of the Nobel Prize-winning economist John Kenneth Galbraith and brother of economist James Galbraith, who is based at the aforementioned Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. Galbraith was an adviser to Varoufakis when the latter served as Greece’s finance minister, a founding member of Varoufakis’ DiEM 25 “movement,” and has repeatedly defended Varoufakis’ inexcusable actions in the press. In the world of globalism, “it’s all in the family.”

Furthermore, Peter Galbraith was also a former candidate for the governorship of the state of Vermont. Keep Vermont in mind as you continue reading.

In 1999, Nimetz became the United Nations’ special mediator for the Macedonia issue following his nomination by the then-Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan, the same Annan who was the architect of the “Annan Plan” for Cyprus which would have, among other things, led to the maintenance of a permanent Turkish military presence on the island, or if you prefer, would make permanent the presence of the island’s current occupying force. The plan was (rightly) rejected by Greek Cypriots in a referendum, while it was (again not surprisingly) approved by Turkish Cypriots. The Greek “rejection” of a “solution” to the Cyprus issue is now used as a “weapon” of sorts against the Greek side, implying that it is the Greeks who do not desire peace and reconciliation on the island.

That’s how Nimetz attained his position as the United Nations’ special mediator for the Macedonia name dispute. However, aside from his questionable diplomatic past, Nimetz has also long been involved with other organizations and initiatives which belie where his true allegiances lie while calling into question his impartiality regarding the Macedonia issue.

Globalism, NGOs, George Soros, and clear conflicts of interest

To begin with, it should be mentioned that Nimetz is listed as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which will appear many times in the coming paragraphs and whose influence over such things as the mainstream media is well-documented.

One highlight of Nimetz’s resume is his former position as director of the Nature Conservancy. Who works for the Nature Conservancy today? Maria Damanaki, as the NGO’s global managing director for oceans. And who is Damanaki? She was purportedly involved in the “resistance” against the Greek military junta and was the voice of the famous pirate radio broadcast by students from inside the occupied Athens Polytechnic Institute during the student uprising, shouting out “Edo Polytechneio” (“This is the Polytechnic”). She parlayed her “resistance” into a political career, and is a former member of the Synaspismos political party (which was the predecessor to SYRIZA) and PASOK (the Panhellenic Socialist Movement) and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), out of which Synaspismos later split.

In 1994 and 1998 Damanaki was a candidate for mayor of Athens, finishing second in 1998. In 2009, Damanaki was named Greece’s representative to the European Commission, while the following year Damanaki was elected as the EU’s Commissioner-designate for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, a position she held until 2014. Despite earning 400,000 euro annually in this position, Damanaki maintained her parliamentary pension at a time when Greece had been forced to enact the first and second memorandum agreements, implementing harsh austerity cuts for those not fortunate enough to be professionally involved in saving the planet as Damanaki was.

Nimetz, between 1986 and 1994, also served as the Chairman of the United Nations Development Corporation (UNDC), as an αppointee of former New York City mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins.

Nimetz is also a trustee of his original alma mater, Williams College. He is also a director of the Revson Foundation, founded by Charles H. Revson, the founding president of Revlon Cosmetics. Nimitz, between 2009 and 2014, also served as chair of the advisory board of SUNY Global/The Levin Institute of the University of the State of New York, named after Neil D. Levin, the former executive director of the aforementioned Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Nimetz is also the co-founder and former head of the World Resources Institute, which boasts offices in the U.S., China, Brazil, Indonesia, and India, and which puts forth “policy solutions” for a “sustainable economy” and “sustainable cities.” The institute’s current president, Andrew Steer, is the World Bank’s former special envoy for climate change, while the organization’s board members include other former World Bank personnel as well as the ex-president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón.

In addition, Nimetz — who seems to have his hands in everything — is a member of the board of an NGO known as the Landesa Rural Development Institute, an organization which purports to support “land rights” for the world’s poor. One of the senior advisors to Landesa is none other than Bill Gates.

On Nimetz’s Landesa bio, he is listed as an Advisory Director and former Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of General Atlantic LLC, worldwide growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for growth companies.

Indeed, Nimetz’s time at General Atlantic includes another conflict of interest with his role as a “neutral mediator” between Greece and “FYROM.” As has been revealed — but never reported in Greece or by Greece’s foreign correspondents — General Atlantic, during Nimetz’s time at the company, invested in a Danish bank known as Saxo Bank. Saxo Bank has a Greek affiliate, which however was never disclosed by Nimetz in reports filed with the UN (see here, here, and here for example). Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN’s Secretary-General, was confronted with this obvious conflict of an interest at a press briefing earlier this year and denied any impropriety on the part of Nimetz.

Nimetz also is the former director of Renren Inc.and its subsidiary, Oak Pacific Interactive the second-largest operator of social networking sites in China. Nimetz, in addition, is a former board member of KCG Investments (Knight Capital Group), formed in 2013 with General Atlantic as a major shareholder, while Rene Kern, General Atlantic’s Managing Director, joined KCG’s board. KCG Investments was a global financial services firm engaging in market making, high-frequency trading, electronic execution, and institutional sales and trading.

Additionally, Nimetz also served as the director of Pennsylvania-based supermarket chain Weis Markets Inc., and has served as the director of Ability Resources, Inc., a third-party administrator of life and health insurance products, in addition to involvement with Zagat Survey, Inc., and Multiplan, Inc. Bloomberg also lists Nimetz as the director of the European Institute of Public Administration.

But wait, it gets better still! Since 2017, Nimetz is also a trustee of the Central European University (CEU), based in Budapest. The founder of the CEU is none other than George Soros, while the CEU openly promotes Soros’ “open society” initiatives. Recently, the continued operation of the CEU has come under threat by the government of Viktor Orban in Hungary, and one of the leading figures opposing Orban’s stance towards the CEU is Kati Marton, wife of the late Richard Holbrooke (previously mentioned) and former wife of longtime ABC Evening News presenter, the late Peter Jennings.

Soros remained chair of the CEU until 2007, and was succeeded by Leon Botstein, who at the time was president of Bard College in New York State. Why is this significant? Bard College is the home of the Levy Economics Institute, whose president since its establishment in 1986 is economist Dimitri B. Papadimitriou. Papadimitriou, who has taught at Bard since 1977, has also presided over Congressional committees, previously studied at the New School, infamous for its connection to the Frankfurt School and what is known today as “cultural Marxism.”

Papadimitriou, between November 2016 and February 2018, served as SYRIZA’s minister of economy, development, and tourism before resigning (reluctantly) in disgrace after it was revealed that Papadimitriou along with his wife, Rania Antonopoulos, who was the SYRIZA government’s alternate minister of labor and social solidarity, were each receiving a generous rent subsidy from the Greek State for their residence in Athens, claiming that they were permanent overseas residents. Antonopoulos resigned as well following these revelations. Notably, Papadimitriou and Antonopoulos were the wealthiest couple in Greece’s parliament.

Antonopoulos has also long been an economist with the Levy Institute and a member of the faculty at Bard College. She, like her husband, also completed her studies at the New School. She is a former adviser to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and to “UN Women,” and is a proponent of “feminist economic theory.” As a researcher at the Levy Institute, her proposed “Greek New Deal” (later touted by Varoufakis and James Galbraith) promised the creation of up to 550,000 new (minimum wage) jobs, which of course have never materialized during the three-plus years of the SYRIZA government. Antonopoulos also famously wrote in SYRIZA party-owned newspaper Avgi in 2016 that the third memorandum agreement, signed by the SYRIZA-led government after it ignored the result of the July 2015 referendum, was “a blessing.”

Rewriting history one textbook at a time

Even more egregiously, Nimetz, in 2014, was the founding chair and later director of an organization known as the Centre for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeastern Europe (CDRSEE). Nimetz remains on the organization’s board of directors to this day. Despite being based in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city and the capital of the Greek prefecture of Macedonia, this organization is virtually unknown to the general public in Greece. And yet its role is extremely significant to the Macedonia issue — and to Greek cultural and historical maintenance.

The CDRSEE describes itself as “a non-governmental, non-profit organization that seeks to foster democratic, pluralist, and peaceful societies in Southeast Europe.” Among other initiatives, has promoted a “Joint History Project” with the support of the EU. This project is described as an effort to “change the way history is taught in schools in the Balkans,” and one might be tempted to wonder whether such a “joint history” includes, for instance, a “joint history” of Greece and “Macedonia.”

The answer to that question is very likely “yes.” As was revealed by Nina Gatzoulis, general coordinator of the World Pan-Macedonian Congress, history books released under the auspices of the CDRSEE’s “Joint History Project” make repeated references to “Macedonia” and to a “Macedonian nation.” Published under the oversight of Panteion University professor of modern and contemporary history Christina Koulouri, the CDRSEE has released three books which purport to promote “balance” and “objectivity” in the teaching of the history of the Balkan region, and “reconciliation” between its peoples.

How do these books apparently achieve this objective? One example comes from a section titled “nations and states,” which includes the national anthems of the countries of the Balkans. For Greece’s northern neighbor though, its national anthem is not included and in its place, a nationalist “Macedonian” poem attributed to Gjorgi Pulevski and titled “The Historical Roots of the Macedonian Nation” appears. This poem refers to the “Czar” Alexander and to “our” ancient Macedonian kingdom.

In other words, these “joint history” textbooks, under the guise of “tolerance,” are promoting the ultra-nationalist historical revisionism of so-called “Macedonians,” despite a wealth of evidence that Alexander the Great, as opposed to “Czar” Alexander, was indisputably Greek. And here another danger arises: while the Tsipras-Zaev deal purports to protect “Macedonian” claims against ancient Hellenic civilization, the hard-line position of “Macedonian” nationalists has been that ancient Macedonia and figures such as Alexander the Great were not Greek.

The covers of three history books produced by the CDRSEE’s “Joint History Project.”

It should also be noted that while the aforementioned nationalist poem has been attributed to Pulevski, no original manuscript has been found of the poem, which was written in Bulgarian instead of in the so-called “Macedonian” language.

A “Macedonian” nationalist poem published in place of the “Macedonian” national anthem, in a history book published by the CDRSEE and translated into Greek.

The CDRSEE’s history books have been translated into the Greek language, as can be seen in the accompanying image, and are being targeted for usage in Greek schools. And here one would be correct to ask another question: with the Tsipras-Zaev deal specifically stating that textbooks and other educational materials in use by the two countries will be reviewed for “irredentist” and “chauvinistic” material, will the CDRSEE, founded by the purportedly “neutral” Matthew Nimetz, stand to benefit by providing the new, “historically correct” textbooks that will be used by schools in both countries?

As for Koulouri, her curriculum vitaeshows a long history of involvement on committees responsible for school history textbooks in Greece — during a period (since the late 1990s) when the teaching of Greek history in Greek primary and secondary schools has been gradually diluted. Specifically, her CV describes, as part of her 17 years of involvement with the CDRSEE, such highlights as organizing workshops “on how to teach sensitive and controversial issues in history in Southeast Europe,” “assessment and editing of alternative teaching materials…as part of a new method in history education,” “coordinating the editing of local editions in seven Balkan countries,” and “coordinating the development of alternative teaching materials…in Kosovo and Montenegro.” It bears noting that Kosovo is not even recognized by Greece. In addition, Koulouri has participated in a similar “shared history project” between Greece and Turkey

What is perhaps most notable and striking about the CDRSEE is a look at who funds this organization. The list is enlightening, featuring a globalist who’s who which encompasses:

The European Commission

The U.S. State Department

The European Commission’s “European Neighbourhood Policy And Enlargement Negotiations,” headed by EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who was in the Prespes region for the signing of the Tsipras-Zaev deal and could barely conceal his glee.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

The National Endowment for Democracy

The European Agency for Reconstruction

The European Fund for the Balkans

The aforementioned United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

The Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe (which was in existence between 1999 and 2008 and of which “Macedonia” was a member. This body created a “South-East Europe Regional Energy Market” with the participation of Greece)

The United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (so much for Switzerland being “neutral”)

The Austrian Development Agency (ADA)

The Austrian Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs

Norway’s Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Norwegian People’s Aid

Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

IrishAid

The Principality of Lichtenstein

The Balkan Trust for Democracy (under the aegis of the German Marshall Fund)

The Central European Initiative

The Institute for Sustainable Communities (co-founded by Madeleine Kunin, former governor of Vermont and former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland during the Clinton presidency). Where have we seen Vermont previously?

The United States Institute of Peace (founded by the U.S. Congress and whose experts include the chair of the Police Restructuring Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina and former head of the legal department of the International Civilian Office in Kosovo, a former National Endowment for Democracy fellow, and a former assistant administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at USAID and current member of the Council on Foreign Relations)

The Winston Foundation for World Peace at William and Mary University (another liberal arts college favored for recruitment by the State Department)

ING Insurance

IREX (a nonprofit whose board members include the managing director of the Bush-affiliated Carlyle Group, the vice president of content acquisition for Comcast — which owns NBC, a former USAID director and Google executive, a former communications director of USAID, the former Senior Advisor of International Education for USAID and wife of former Iowa governor and presidential candidate Tom Vilsack, a former U.S. State Department official during the George W. Bush administration, a former vice president of the Carnegie Corporation, the former executive director of the previously-mentioned “UN Women,” the CEO of the FP group — publisher of Foreign Policy, the chair of Refugees International and a former reporter for Time, CBS, CNN and NPR; and the former Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs and former deputy secretary to Bill Clinton during his presidency)

Sabanci University (Turkey)

The University of Bucharest (Romania)

And last but not least, the George Soros-founded and affiliated Open Society Foundations, Foundation Open Society Macedonia, Open Society Institute Sofia, and Central European University.

The above list does not include the various “Greek” sources of funding for the CDRSEE, which includes:

The “Hellenic” Ministry of Foreign Affairs (under the aegis of Minister Nikos Kotzias)

The Municipality of Thessaloniki (under the mayorship of globalist darling Yiannis Boutaris)

The A.G. Leventis Foundation

The Cyprus Federation of America (which maintains extremely close ties with the U.S. Democratic Party, including Senator Robert Menendez, who has faced corruption charges. Its membership and leadership includes Philip Christopher and Nikos Mouyiaris, former owners and publishers of the now-defunct pro-PASOK diaspora newspaper “Proini,” based in New York City, whose one time editor, Michalis Ignatiou, was the longtime U.S. correspondent of the pro-austerity, pro-PASOK Mega Channel television network in Greece. Christopher’s niece is employed by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Business Channel, while Proini also once included within its ranks Chrysanthos Lazaridis, former adviser to ex-Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras; and Alexis Papachelas, executive editor of the pro-austerity, neoliberal Kathimerini which also publishes the English-language eKathimerini. Papachelas studied economics at Bard College at the same time that the aforementioned Papadimitriou taught economics at the same university. Papachelas has also attended the Bilderberg meetings in the past. He recently appeared alongside Tsipras on state broadcaster’s ERT panel discussion on the “North Macedonia” agreement).

The Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (whose longtime chairman, George A. David, has been a regular in the annual meetings of the Bilderberg Group)

Titan Cement (whose CEO, Dimitris Papalexopoulos, is a regular attendee of the Bilderberg meetings, including this year’s conclave)

The National Bank of Greece (repeatedly recapitalized by Greek taxpayers)

Greece’s Alpha Bank (repeatedly recapitalized by Greek taxpayers)

Samaras and Associates (based in Thessaloniki)

The Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki

The Greek-Turkish Business Council

In turn, the CDRSEE’s private donors include Matthew Nimetz himself, Greek attorney Stathis Potamitis, shipping magnate Pekin Baran (a member of a Turkish think tank known as the Global Relations Forum), the late John Brademas (former Majority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives, former president of New York University, former chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and former board member of the New York Stock Exchange and the Rockefeller Foundation), businessman Nikos Efthymiadis (vice president of the CDRSEE, Honorary Consul of the Netherlands in Thessaloniki, and Chairman of the STABILITY PACT/Business Advisory Council for Southeast Europe), businesswoman Stacey A. Polites (Elastrak), Alex Gus Spanos (the billionaire chairman of the A.G. Spanos Companies, owner of the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers, and one of the top donors to the campaigns of George W. Bush and a Bush family friend), Rigas Tzelepoglou (president of the Thessaloniki Business College), and Spiros Voyadzis (οwner, Partnerships for Finance and Development).

Many of the aforementioned individuals participate in an annual conclave which could be described as the Greek edition of the Bilderberg Group, the Delphi Economic Forum. These individuals include Nikos Mouyiaris, Nikos Efthymiadis, Alexis Papahelas, Dimitris Papalexopoulos, and Maria Damanaki, in addition to a veritable all-star team of leading Greek and foreign politicians, businesspeople, bankers, journalists, academics, clerics, military leadership, and ambassadors far too numerous to list here. As mentioned earlier, it’s “all in the family” as far as neoliberalism and globalism is concerned.

To illustrate just some of the above connections, consider that David Rothkopf, the CEO of the FP Group, which publishes Foreign Policy, is a board member of the IREX NGO. IREX is listed as a donor of the CDRSEE, where Nimetz is a founding member, former director, and current board member. Foreign Policy, following the Tsipras-Zaev deal, has suggested that Tsipras be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At the same time, the Trump-Kim peace deal and the reconciliation between North and South Korea, for instance, are treated with hostility by the same press establishment, and by the “markets.”

In another example, we see that Nimetz is a trustee of the Central European University (CEU), which in turn is a donor to the CDRSEE, as are the Open Society Foundations of George Soros, who established the CEU and was its initial chair. His successor, Leon Botstein, was previously the president of Bard College in New York. Bard College is the home of the Levy Economics Institute, whose founder and president Dimitri B. Papadimitriou was, until recently, Greece’s economy minister, while his wife, a senior economist with the Levy Economics Institute, was alternate minister of labor in the same SYRIZA-led government. Journalist Alexis Papachelas, who appeared alongside Alexis Tsipras in his televised interview immediately following the “North Macedonia” deal, was once a journalist with the Greek diaspora newspaper Proini, whose owners are members and past presidents and board members of the Cyprus Federation of America, which is also listed as a donor to the CDRSEE. “All in the family,” as we see once more.

What should be evident here is a stunning conflict of interest on multiple levels, calling into question Nimetz’ impartiality towards Greece and his suitability for the role of “mediator” between Greece and the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.” He is the founder, former director, and board member of an organization which, in the textbooks it produces, has long referred to Greece’s northern neighbor as “Macedonia.” His textbooks have reproduced nationalist texts of “Macedonia” and made references to a “Macedonian ethnicity.” And the agreement which he brokered includes a specific clause which makes reference to the revision of school textbooks and other educational materials in both countries, as they pertain to the teaching of history. The CDRSEE produces history textbooks, under the auspices of the “Joint History Project.”

Furthermore, the CDRSEE receives funding from an outfit, IREX, one of whose board members is the CEO of the FP Group, which publishes Foreign Policy and which has called for Tsipras to receive a Nobel Prize as a result of the “North Macedonia” agreement, brokered by Nimetz.

Another noteworthy factoid is that the FP Group is itself a division of The Slate Group, which also operates Slate.com and which itself is owned by the Graham Holdings Company, formerly The Washington Post Company (which owned the newspaper by the same name, as well as Newsweek magazine). This company has branched out into other industries, including health care, manufacturing, and energy. With regards to the latter, Graham Holdings purchased, in 2013, Forney Corp. Based in Texas, Forney manufactures equipment that monitors and controls the combustion of coal, natural gas, and other materials. This equipment is sold to electric utilities for use in power generation plants.

Here, one simply needs to recall that the Tsipras-Zaev deal includes a specific clause for cooperation between the two countries on the construction, development, and operation of oil and gas pipelines. One may further note that the “Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe,” which was in existence between 1999 and 2008 and of which “Macedonia” was a member, was a donor to the CDRSEE. A lasting legacy of this body is the creation of a “South-East Europe Regional Energy Market” with the participation of Greece). And at this time, while all of Greece was focused on the “North Macedonia” agreement, a new austerity multi-bill was passed in Parliament in June, placing 25 billion euros’ worth of public assets as collateral, while foreseeing the privatization of Greece’s Public Power Corporation (DEH). Stavros K. Goutsos, the CEO of DEH, was one of the speakers at this year’s Delphi Economic Forum.

What is also egregious is the fact that the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was purportedly negotiating with the “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” over the name issue, is listed as a donor to the very organization, the CDRSEE, founded by the mediator in the name dispute, Matthew Nimetz, an organization from which Nimetz has not absolved himself as he remains a board member. Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in other words, has funded an organization founded and directed by Nimetz, of which Nimetz remains part, which has long recognized Greece’s northern neighbor as “Macedonia” and which may stand to benefit from the “revision” of history textbooks in both Greece and the country which may soon be known as “North Macedonia.”

Continuing this thread of potential conflicts of interest, Nimetz is also a member of the Board of Advisors of an outfit known as the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP). Described as “a nonprofit policy organization dedicated to the resolution of conflicts that threaten U.S. interests,” the NCAFP “identifies, articulates, and helps advance American foreign policy interests from a nonpartisan perspective within the framework of political realism.” How can Nimetz serve as an impartial, neutral mediator if he is simultaneously a member of the board of an organization which seeks to “advance American foreign policy interests”?

Notably, the NCAFP’s leadership includes Paul Volcker (former chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System), and more notably still, a certain Nancy E. Soderberg, who is the committee’s vice chairman. From 2001 until 2005, Soderberg served as the vice president of the International Crisis Group (ICG),which in 2011 proposed the name “Republic of North Macedonia” for Greece’s northern neighbor. Other NCAFP board members have served as Vice Chairman of Global Banking for Citigroup and Undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury for International Affairs, former associates of the RAND Corporation, and are members of the Council on Foreign Relations.

As the Council on Foreign Relations has appeared several times in this investigation, it bears noting that recently, Julian Assangetweeted an image showing the CFR’s links to major media holdings. Many of those outlets have correspondents based in Greece or who regularly report about Greece, almost all of whom have not concealed their excitement over the “North Macedonia” agreement while, for instance, ignoring the austerity bill passed by parliament last week and instead reporting that Greece is on the road to economic recovery.

Note that Foreign Policy appears above, as do many other prominent outlets. This may therefore help explain why practically all of the mainstream media outlets — and their correspondents based in or otherwise reporting on Greece — have barely concealed their excitement over the “North Macedonia” deal.

However, what about the International Crisis Group mentioned earlier? On its board, we find both George Sorosand his son Alexander Soros, in addition to a globalist all-star team which includes former Swedish prime minister and foreign minister Carl Bildt (who served as a mediator during the Yugoslav conflict, as the EU’s Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia, co-chairman of the Dayton Peace Conference, High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the UN’s Special Envoy for the Balkans), Wesley Clark (former U.S. presidential candidate endorsed by the “leftist” Michael Moore, and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, who led the bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999), Wadah Khanfar (former Director General of Al Jazeera, which has repeatedly chastised Greece and other European countries for their “treatment” of “refugees” while Al Jazeera’s parent government hasn’t taken any in), Wim Kok (former Dutch prime minister), former U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering, Javier Solana (former Spanish foreign minister, former NATO Secretary General, former EU Commissioner, and Distinguished Fellow at the aforementioned Brookings Institute), and former U.S. Treasury Secretary and president of Harvard University “Larry” Summers. The president of the International Crisis Group, Robert Malley, former Special Assistant to the President during the Obama administration, has followed virtually the same academic path as Nimetz, attending Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, as well as Harvard Law School.

It should also be mentioned that two “Greeks” also find themselves on the International Crisis Group’s board of trustees, including former U.S. Congresswoman Olympia Snowe and Maria Livanos Cattaui, former Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce. What else does Livanos Cattaui do? She is on the global board of the Open Society Foundation of (who else?) George Soros.

Indeed, to be specific, both George Soros and son Alexander are on the Open Society Foundation’s global board, along with (surprise!) some other familiar names, including Leon Botstein, the aforementioned president of Bard College and member of the board of trustees of Soros’ Central European University. Another board member, Ivan Krastev, is also a member of the board of trustees of the now-familiar International Crisis Group in addition to being a founding board member of the European Council of Foreign Relations and former executive director of the International Commission on the Balkans. All in the family once more.

Some further peculiarities

In Tsipras’ interview on Greek state broadcaster ERT soon after the agreement was reached, he stated that both he and Zaev sent the deal to Nimetz for “corrections.” Say what? Exactly what “corrections” were made by Nimetz? And were these “corrections” approved by Tsipras and/or Zaev, or were they unilateral? Tsipras did not clarify his statement, nor did the softball government-employed interviewer on ERT.

What is nevertheless interesting though is that Nimetz has a long history of finding himself in positions which pertain to border and frontier disputes, and in regions which also happen to be known for trafficking of all sorts: drugs, humans, and more. Nimetz was at one time responsible for U.S.-Mexico border issues at the U.S. State Department. He was a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the airports and harbors of the New York City area. And the region which includes “FYROM” as well as Albania — and the significant Albanian minority within “FYROM” proper — is notorious for drug and human trafficking. What does Nimetz know about these issues and what, if anything, has he done to combat such issues all these years?

Therefore, having examined Nimetz’ history, his diplomatic and business connections, and his prior positions both in the public and private sectors, numerous serious questions arise as to Nimetz’ impartiality, the many potential conflicts of interest which can be identified between his role as “special mediator” on the Macedonia issue and his positions on numerous corporate and non-profit boards, his prior stance towards Greece and Greek national issues dating back to his role in charge of Greek-Turkish affairs in the U.S. State Department during the Carter administration, and the ulterior motives he may have had in brokering the 1995 agreement which led to the name “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and which was then used by Nimetz against Greece by claiming that the name “Macedonia” had already been accepted for inclusion in the name of Greece’s northern neighbor. Is it simply a coincidence that Nimetz’ Thessaloniki-based NGO, the CDRSEE, produces school history textbooks for the Balkan region, recognizes “Macedonia” and a “Macedonian nation,” and that the Tsipras-Zaev deal brokered by Nimetz includes specific provisions for the revision of school textbooks in both countries?

Further questions also arise: why has the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs been providing financial support for an NGO which was founded by the purportedly “unbiased” Nimetz and which recognizes Greece’s northern neighbor as “Macedonia”? Why is such funding also provided by the Municipality of Thessaloniki under its mayor, Yiannis Boutaris? What is the role of the international press and of figures such as George Soros in the Macedonia dispute, as evidenced by the many connections between NGOs Nimetz participates in, and Soros and the global press? Furthermore, was the “North Macedonia” name agreed upon as far back as 2011 or even earlier, and finally rolled out today for specific diplomatic or geopolitical reasons, such as, say, a fear that with Euroskepticism and “Trumpism” gaining ground in Europe and SYRIZA’s support continuously weakening in Greece (despite its purported “economic success story”), the time was now for the EU, NATO, and Nimetz to finally announce an agreement?

More questions still: what is the SYRIZA government gaining from this agreement and indeed why are they suddenly so desperate to “solve” longstanding foreign policy disputes such as this? Furthermore, what’s in the deal for Zaev and his country? Was Zaev, who did not win the December 2016 elections in his country, installed precisely to see this agreement through, and for what ends?

Or could it perhaps be that the Tsipras-Zaev deal, with the many hurdles that it still faces before ratification, is meant to fail? If so, what will follow a collapse of the Tsipras-Zaev agreement?

In looking at Nimetz’ diplomatic history, was he perhaps installed as “mediator” due to a prior history which could be considered questionable with regard to his stance towards Greece? Indeed, was he placed in the position he maintained for over a quarter century due to a history of not resolving longstanding disputes, such as the issue of Micronesian independence? Is the fact that Nimetz has often been placed in positions which concern border regions and areas with a high degree of trafficking coincidental, or is there something more to the story that we are not being told?

Ultimately, all of the above questions boil down to this concluding query: was Nimetz truly impartial in his role as “mediator” or are the many potential conflicts of interest identified above enough for the Tsipras-Zaev deal to be considered invalid?

Opinions expressed are those of the author alone and may not reflect the opinions and viewpoints of Hellenic Insider, its publisher, its editors, or its staff, writers, and contributors.

The dispute concerns gas blocks, with Turkey furious about the energy cooperation of these Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt in the East Mediterranean Sea. While Turkish warships have been active, it appears Turkey is taking a new approach to this hybrid war.

As KeepTalkingGreece.com reports,a new Turkish narrative, based on paranoia and conspiracy theories, has been launched claiming that Greece, Israel and Egypt are part of the murder plot of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, presumably in an effort to garner global opinion against their energy-hording neighbors.

This unbelievable allegation has been claimed by Erdogan’s close aide Yigit Bulut, who is famous for his delirium and ravings, during an appearance on state television of Turkey.

“Greece, Israel and Egypt are part of murder plot involving slain Saudi Arabia journalist Khashoggi in Istanbul,” Yigit Bulut said in TRT Television, where he is a frequent guest.

Enlisting the ‘good old traditional perception’ that Turkey is surrounded by enemies, KeepTalkingGreece notesthat Bulut said:

“a belt extending from Europe to Israel has always harbored hostility towards Turkey they never wanted Turks in this region. Europe even made Turks to fight unnecessary wars against Russia.”

It is worth noting that Russia and Turkey have come closer recently due to Syria, a cooperation sealed with armament sales to Ankara triggering the anger of US and the NATO of which Turkey is a member.

Bulut vowed that Turkey will continue oil and gas exploration in the East Mediterranean off-shore Cyprus.

Turkey vows to make ‘sea bandits’ drilling gas off Cyprus pay, like ‘terrorists in Syria’ did

Ankara will not allow any “sea bandits” to roam free and tap the disputed natural gas reserves off Cyprus, Turkey’s president has vowed, while commissioning a new warship to challenge competitors militarily, should the need arise.

“We will not accept attempts to seize natural resources in the Eastern Mediterranean through the exclusion of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC),” Erdogan said Sunday, according to Daily Sabah. While claiming that Turkey has no ambitions to annex any “territories,” Ankara promised to protect “the rights of our country and of our brothers.”

“Those who thought that they could take steps in the Eastern Mediterranean or the Aegean despite [this] have begun to understand the magnitude of their mistake. We will not allow bandits in the seas to roam free just like we made the terrorists in Syria pay,” Erdogan said at a ceremony transferring the TCG Burgazada corvette to the Turkish Navy.

The exploration of hydrocarbon resources off the coast of the Republic of Cyprus has become a sensitive issue for the international community, ever since the first gas deposit discoveries were made off the coast in 2011. While the Republic of Cyprus belongs to the EU community and is recognized by the UN, TRNC, the northern third of the island, has been occupied by Turkey since 1974. As a result, Ankara continues to claim jurisdiction for offshore research in the East Mediterranean, an area thought to be rich with natural resources.

The region has recently witnessed an escalation in tensions, after the Turkish Navy intercepted a Greek frigate which tried to interfere with a Turkish research vessel’s seabed exploration on October 18. The incident prompted a diplomatic row with Greece, which traditionally supports the ethnically Greek government of the Republic of Cyprus. While Greece denied interfering with the Turkish research vessel, Ankara has cautioned its neighbor and longtime opponent not to stir trouble in the region.

To ease tensions, Cyprus’ President Nicos Anastasiades has offered Turkey on Friday to cooperate on exploiting the East Mediterranean’s potential oil and gas wealth, stressing that the ethnically split island nation should be reunified. All previous international efforts to unite the island have failed. To avoid any further intercommunal tensions and hostilities the United Nations continues to maintain a buffer zone there.

“We will continue with our goal of exercising the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus, as an independent state – member of the European Union, proceeding seamlessly with our energy planning for the benefit of all the legitimate inhabitants of the country, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots,” the president noted.

US-based ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum have already been licensed by the Cypriot government to undertake seabed exploration of Block 10. Last month, Nicosia also invited France’s Total, Italy’s ENI and ExxonMobil to explore Block 7. ExxonMobil’s Stena IceMax drillship is scheduled to arrive in Cyprus on November 12. Turkey, meanwhile, started conducting its first deep-sea drilling off Antalya’s shores on its Mediterranean coast this week.

Although the September 30, 2018 name-change referendum in Macedonia, which was supposed to set that ex-Yugoslav federal republic on a path to (certain) NATO and (blithely promised but much less certain) EU membership, failed miserably, with only 36.91% of the voters turning out, well short of the 50% + 1 necessary for it to be valid – one would never know it from the reactions of its Western proponents and impatient beneficiaries. Indeed, a new term may be needed to adequately describe the reactions of the key pillars representing the reliquiae reliquiarum of the Western-led post-Cold War unipolar moment. Fake news simply doesn’t do them justice. Fake reality anyone?

The US State Department was firmly in denial, releasing the following statement: “The United States welcomes the results of the Republic of Macedonia’s September 30 referendum, in which citizens expressed their support for NATO and European Union (EU) membership by accepting the Prespa Agreement between Macedonia and Greece. The United States strongly supports the Agreement’s full implementation, which will allow Macedonia to take its rightful place in NATO and the EU, contributing to regional stability, security, and prosperity. As Macedonia’s parliament now begins deliberation on constitutional changes, we urge leaders to rise above partisan politics and seize this historic opportunity to secure a brighter future for the country as a full participant in Western institutions.”

EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn wasn’t to be outdone in his contempt for the 63% of the Macedonian “deplorables” who stayed home in order to voice their disagreement with renouncing their perceived national identity and country name (it was to become “Northern Macedonia”) in exchange for the double joy of a) becoming NATO’s cannon-fodder in its increasingly hazardous game of chicken with Russia and b) the EU’s newest debt-serfs: “Referendum in Macedonia: I congratulate those citizens who voted in today’s consultative referendum and made use of their democratic freedoms. With the very significant “yes” vote, there is broad support to the #Prespa Agreement + to the country’s #Euroatlantic path. I now expect all political leaders to respect this decision and take it forward with utmost responsibility and unity across party lines, in the interest of the country.” He was seconded the following day, in a joint statement, by Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the EU Commission.

Understandably, as the most direct public stakeholder, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was particularly (hyper)active. As the disappointing results began to roll in, Stoltenberg went into immediate damage control, tweeting: “I welcome the yes vote in Macedonia referendum. I urge all political leaders & parties to engage constructively & responsibly to seize this historic opportunity. #NATO’s door is open, but all national procedures have to be completed.” He reinforced his delusional missive the next day, releasing a similar statement co-signed by EU President Donald Tusk. And the day after, during a news conference, Stoltenberg even offered lightning-quick NATO accession to the unwilling Macedonians – January 2019, to be exact – if they would just be so kind as to urgently implement the very agreement that they had just so emphatically rejected. When NATO says it promotes democratic values – it means it!

But that wasn’t the end of the “democracy mongering” surrounding what may well prove to be NATO’s, the EU’s and the rest of the end-of-history West’s Balkan Waterloo. For example, the EU Parliament’s Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, although “regretting that the turnout was less than 50%,” nevertheless hailed the referendum’s results and “call(ed) on the opposition to respect the expressed will of the majority [sic] of voters.” The Group’s leader, Udo Bullmann, while also maintaining that, somehow, a voter turnout of under 37% still represented a “majority,” additionally used the occasion to chastise Macedonia’s President for having the nerve to call for a boycott of the referendum (he committed the crimethink of referring to it as “historical suicide” during his UN General Assembly address), as well as to decry – what else? – “reports about Russian interference in the electoral process.” It goes without saying that Bullmann offered absolutely zero proof for his assertion. On the other hand, according to numerous media reports, as September 30 approached, while no high Russian official was to be seen anywhere in the vicinity, a veritable procession of Western political bigwigs made the pilgrimage to Skopje in order to reveal to the natives their “true” best interests: Sebastian Kurz, “Mad Dog” Mattis, the indefatigable Stoltenberg, Federica Mogherini, Johannes Hahn, Angela Merkel. No meddling there, obviously…

Speaking of Angela Merkel, she also joined her fellow Western democrats’ show of unanimous disdain for the Macedonian voters’ majority opinion, urging the country to “push ahead” with the implementation of the majority-rejected accord, citing voters’ “overwhelming support” [sic], and arguing through the mouth of her spokesman that the required 50% + 1 turnout was actually “very high,” as voter registers purportedly included many people who had long since left the country.

Coincidentally (?), the same argument was used by Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, who opined that the “yes” votes cast in the referendum do, in fact, “represent the majority despite the low turnout because Macedonia does not have the 1.8 million voters entered into its electoral rolls but just 1.2 million since 300,000 people have left the country since the voter lists were last updated 20 years ago.” The fallacy of his reality-challenged claim is easily exposed if we just take a glance at the results of Macedonia’s last parliamentary elections (December 2016), in which voter turnout was just under 1.2 million (1,191,832 to be exact) or, officially, 66.79%. If we were to believe Kotzias and Merkel (who lodged no objections at the time), that would have meant that the turnout for the 2016 elections had been 99% – a figure that would make any totalitarian dictator blush with envy. On the other hand, since those elections did produce the “desired result,” enabling the current heavily pro-NATO/EU government led by Zoran Zaev to be formed, that automatically made them “valid” in the eyes of the high priests of democracy in Brussels, Berlin, London and Washington.

Needless to say, Zaev joined his Western patrons’ charade, hailing the referendum as a “democratic success,” and announcing that he would seek the Macedonian Parliament’s support to amend the constitution and get the agreement with Greece ratified (according to the so-called Prespa Agreement, the Macedonian Parliament must adopt the necessary constitutional amendments by the end of 2018) so that the Greek Parliament can do the same, which would seal the deal. However, Zaev and his Albanian political partners are currently well short of the necessary two-thirds majority (reportedly, they can count on 71 deputies, or 9 short of the needed 80), and will have to call early elections if they don’t soon succeed in securing it.

Yet, let it not go unsaid that Zaev was singing a rather different tune prior to the referendum, assuring that “citizens will make the decision,” and that Parliament would vote on the necessary constitutional changes only if the referendum is successful. But that was then, when confidence was still high that the usual combination of Western pressure, money and overwhelming domination of the media spectrum would get the job done. And then reality struck on September 30…

Still, amidst all the faux cheer and public displays of confidence of the pro-NATO/EU crowd, a palpable sense of unease hangs in the air. As a Deutsche Welle opinion piece put it, the “low voter turnout for Macedonia’s referendum is a bad starting point for the country’s future development.” And, according to DW in Serbian, a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung commentary warned that “politicians who otherwise ceaselessly talk of democracy as a ‘special value’ should not call on the parliament in Skopje to accept the voting results.” In other words, Macedonia’s people (read – a large majority of the majority Slavic population) have “voted with their feet” and rejected the agreement, and no new parliamentary election, no matter the results, can change that unpleasant-but-immutable fact. That alone will delegitimize any Western-led effort to “manufacture consent” by ramming the agreement through the present or future Parliament – although, as we know, NATO doesn’t put too much stock in referenda anyway, while the EU is not averse to making citizens vote as many times as needed to obtain the “right” result.

But the West has lost more than just legitimacy in Macedonia – it has damaged its reputation, perhaps irretrievably. In the words of former presidential advisor Cvetin Chilimanov, “The West has humiliated us… Macedonians have rejected this media, psychological, political and propaganda aggression against the people, and that’s the tragedy of these days, that a large percentage of a people that had been genuinely oriented towards the West has changed its mind and stopped looking at the West as something democratic, something progressive and successful… That is the reason for the boycott. Pressure was applied against Macedonia, a country that had always been open to ties with the West, but which did not want to make this disgusting compromise and humiliate itself before the neighboring countries, before Western countries. We did not understand why that humiliation was needed so that we might become a member of Europe. What’s worst, perhaps that is now the thinking of a silent majority of the people, that they won’t forget this insult and this attack on Macedonia.”